


Hand in my hand

by PerriewinkleNerdie



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:02:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24471001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerriewinkleNerdie/pseuds/PerriewinkleNerdie
Summary: Chapter 9 rewrite, or how they can't stay away from each other and everyone knows it.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Kudos: 43





	Hand in my hand

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, hello, hello! We back, fam, how we feeling?  
> The chapter slammed me into my writing zone, thank god I had some free time :D  
> Enjoy! <3

The administrative office is strangely empty and quiet when they enter, the artificial lighting making the white of the walls and furniture even brighter. After making sure that they were alone, twice, for the good measure, Claire strode towards the desk, leaning forward to catch a glimpse of the screen. It was unlocked, there for the taking

“Is it bad that I was expecting that to be the case? Amateurs.” she muttered under her breath, causing Ethan to let out a laugh that he had to stifle. Claire sat down on the chair, clicking a few buttons on the keyboard, her eyes scanning the information before her. Ethan walked over to her side, putting his hand on her shoulder to get her attention.

“Let me, I’m more familiar with their system.” He spoke gently, their eyes locking for a brief moment when she stood up to make space for him, their faces in close proximity long enough for his thoughts to get swarmed with all kinds of images that threatened to overwhelm him and make him throw all this inhibitions to the wind and just reach for her.

Claire moved to the door, leaning against the frame, watching the hallway for anyone that might sink their mission. Meanwhile, Ethan took the seat and got to work. He combed through the files, looking for the name of the senator, but it proved to be more work than he anticipated, for his eyes kept straying to Claire. She was keeping guard, but more often than not, he felt her gaze on him, and found it incredibly distracting.

“Is there something on your mind, Claire?” he smirked, directing his attention back to the task at hand.

“I like looking at fine things, Ethan. That’s all.” She shrugged her shoulders, looking back towards the corridor. “So how often _do_ you come here?”

“Very occasionally. I’m consulting on a research project with an immunologist which requires me to come by a few times a year, but I largely try to avoid the place.” Ethan answered offhandedly, his tone neutral for the most part, sparking up only when he mentioned his research.

“Because of Tobias?” after receiving no answer from him, she carried on. “Ethan, Tobias seems to enjoy messing with you.”

“Oh, he does. He messes with everyone, I’m no exception here.” He nodded after a moment of consideration, without delving into the memories too much.

“Even when you were friends?”

“Of course. After all, we were both troublemakers. But while I was direct with challenging my authority figures, he always was a prankster.” A ghost of a smile appeared on his face as he recalled his first med school year.

“Challenging your authority figures, huh?” Claire grinned widely, looking back outside to make sure they were safe before walking towards him. “Do you mind _me_ challenging _you_ , Dr. Ramsey?”

“No, as long as I get to challenge you too, Dr. Herondale, I don’t.” he looked up at her, electricity humming softly in the air around them. After a long, intense moment, he continued. “We had one particularly uptight professor with some… very outdated theories. Tobias swapped out his projector slides with rude drawings.”

“You draw?” she asked, surprised, laughing when he nodded.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Is there anything you can’t do? Actually, don’t answer that, I don’t think I want to know. Don’t burst the bubble for me.” Claire held her hand up, looking over her shoulder to check on their situation. “What kind of ‘rude drawings’ did you do?”

“What makes you think it was me?”

“Was it not you?” her eyebrow shot up in a question. He held his breath, fighting to keep a straight face, before ultimately failing and laughing warmly. “Thought so. So, what was it?”

“Some women and men in very revealing poses.” He admitted, his cheeks reddening slightly. Claire giggled, her eyes widening a bit. Nodding her head, she brushed her hand against his shoulder.

“If you ever need a model, hit me up.”

“I’m going to pretend I understood the last part of that sentence and accept your offer. Anytime, Rookie.” He mused softly, his hand moving to brush his fingers against hers, twining them for a short moment. Wordlessly, they spent the next few seconds, reveling in the quiet comfort of each other’s closeness. Eventually, they fell back into the everyday world, him going back to searching for the senator’s name on the long list of patients while she retreated to her previous spot by the door.

“Anyway, the professor did the whole two-hour lecture without one looking back to notice why we were laughing. Me? I always preferred calling him an idiot to his face.”

“Sounds like you.” she teased him, moving her weight from one foot to the other. “It also sounds like you two were having a lot of fun together.”

All he did was hum quietly, then his attention was focused solely on the task at hand. His smile fell as he sat back in the chair, confirming what they both were afraid of. “There is no Farrugia anywhere in the hospital. Are we sure June’s tip was reliable?”

“I think so… Could he be under a pseudonym? Would a hospital allow that?” Claire’s confusion was clear on her face as she walked over to him, leaning against the desk, folding her arms over her chest.

Ethan nodded, deep in thoughts. “It’s possible. But that means we need to figure out what a senator neither of us has ever met would use as an alias.”

“But it may not have been the senator who came up with the alias at all…” she trailed off, the gears in her head turning. Letting out a deep breath, she spoke up. “Okay, what do we know about Tobias? He would have been the one to admit the senator, and it seems unlikely he’d pick a name at complete random.”

“No, almost nobody would.” He agreed, leaning forward, resting his head on his hands.

“Can you think of any name that might have popped into his head? A relative, or friend, or-“

“Dwight Theodore Lewis III.” He stated firmly, a spark in his eyes. Claire shifted in her place, turning to face him more directly.

“Who?”

A smirk lit up his face when he recalled that piece of information. “It was the name of Tobias’s fake I.D. He kept it framed on his desk as a memorial to ‘all the good times’ they shared. He used it any time he needed to avoid getting in trouble.”

“Great.” She drummed her fingers against the surface of the desk in excitement. “So is there a Dwight Theodore Somebody the Somethingth in the records?”

A few clicks later, a file popped up on the screen and Ethan turned fully towards her with a wide and satisfied grin. “Room 734. That’s in the V.I.P. wing.”

“Kenmore had a literal V.I.P. wing?”

“There’s more than one reason I despise this place.” He muttered under his breath, sharing a knowing gaze with her. He opened his mouth to say something else when the voice of a woman reached their ears, indicating she was approaching them. They both froze, uncertain what to do. Not enough time to run and nowhere to hide, about to be caught.

With no warning, Ethan reached from his seat for her, his hand grabbing the front of her scrubs, and pulled her onto him. She stumbled, her knees hitting the chair, hands grabbing onto his shoulders to keep her balance. He looked up at her, eyes locking for a brief moment, and she couldn’t find a sliver of hesitation if she tried. His hands pressed firmly against her back, pushing her onto him even more, and with one, small movement from him, his lips touched hers urgently, like he couldn’t wait a second more, like he’d combust if he had to stay away from her.

The intensity took her breath away. Her heart stopped beating, only to pick up its pace the moment it came back to life, her head spinning. She twined her fingers into his hair, pulling on the strands to pull him closer, even though it was humanly impossible to do so. Their faces were as close as they could possibly be.

“Oh! Uh… Sorry!” the same female voice rang behind them, but neither noticed nor cared. Retreating footsteps were barely acknowledged, for they were far too gone. The lady closed the door to provide them privacy, making Ethan grateful, mostly because it allowed him fully sit her in his lap. He grabbed her by the hips and hauled her into the sitting position, her knees locking him down in the chair.

A soft sigh slipped past her lips when Ethan directed his kisses down her neck, moving aside his own lab coat, a bit too big and hanging loose on her body, then the material of her scrubs, to reveal the skin on her collarbone, teasing it lightly with his lips. Claire shifted on top of her, drawing a strangled groan from him.

Ethan stood up and carried her onto the desk, stepping in between her legs, kissing her like there was no tomorrow. His hands were running up and down her back, holding her in place, closely to him, while her fingers combed through his hair gently. Claire’s heels grazed against the back of his thighs briefly, preventing him from stepping away at the same time.

When the kiss finally broke, they were both out of breath and out of mind. He leaned away from her, with no enthusiasm, wanting nothing more than to dive back into her and never stop kissing her. Knowing that they both had duties to fulfil, he reluctantly moved back, though his hold on her never lessened.

“We should… We need to…” he panted as he spoke, his eyes darkened with desire. Claire nodded, grinning widely at how certain he was in all his movements.

“Room 734. Yeah.”

\---------------

Her laughter ringed in the air as her and Baz ran out of the hospital through the main entrance, not daring to look back and see if Tobias was still following them. Just then, ever the savior, Ethan pulls up in front of them, slamming the brakes. He called out through the open window.

“Need a ride?” unsurprisingly, he was incredibly smug about it. Baz laughed, throwing himself towards the back seat.

“This is just like a movie!”

“My hero.” Claire giggled, opening and closing the door to the passenger’s seat hastily. She turned her head towards the building, just in time to see Tobias bursting out of the entrance. “Ethan, hit it!”

His foot slammed on the accelerator, the car speeding away, leaving Tobias far behind them. Looking back at his form that was getting smaller and smaller, she noticed his amused smirk. “Looks like this round goes to Edenbrook.”

She then turned back around, letting out a relieved laugh as her forehead fell against Ethan’s shoulder. He looked at her briefly, a soft smile lighting up his face. Claire leaned back into her seat a moment later, her breathing evening out.

“So, did our plan work?” he asked, relaxing when the tension left him.

“Like a charm. We should be expecting the senator to join us in the hospital soon.” She grinned, her heartbeat picking up when Ethan looked at her again, his eyes softening.

The silence was comfortable, a striking contrast to the adrenaline-driven events that took place just minutes ago. Ethan kept stealing glances at Claire, Claire kept on brushing her fingers against his, seemingly by accident.

“You two can hold hands, you know?” Baz’s voice rang from the backseat, causing them to freeze in their movements.

“We don’t-“

“Why would you-“

“Oh, come on. You couldn’t be more obvious if you tried. Both of you are flushed, your lips are bruised, not that I have any idea or want to know when you two found the time to make out on a mission. So, please.” He laid it all out for them, then leaned forward, grabbing their hands and joining them firmly. “Commit to it, dammit.”

Ethan fought the overwhelming smile, tried to bite it down, but ultimately failed and just accepted it, his fingers tangling with hers. Claire nodded, catching Baz’s eyes in the rearview mirror. He winked at her knowingly, then sat back in his seat with a satisfied smile.


End file.
